Cooler recap

I did go to the COOLER CLASSIC 16 ultimate tournament over the weekend, about 6 hours away, just outside Milwaukee. The odometer reads about 744 miles for the whole trip.

I drove to Lincoln late Friday, got three hours of sleep then took off for Peoria at 3 a.m. Saturday, picked up Mike — a Cat engineer — in Peoria and we followed Kevin’s car all the way to Delafield, WI, where we pulled into the polo fields at 8:30 a.m. First games started at 9 a.m.

I probably shouldn’t play Open A again, and I pretty much knew that beforehand, but I’m glad I got to try it. I got my hands on the disc a few times, but the best play was my layout for a tipped/blocked disc a few feet from our endzone which we then scored on. We got 13th place in the Open A division. The championship game in our division was Big Ass Truck(Berkley, MI) vs. Machine (Chicago).

It was cool and windy and rained most of Saturday. It stopped for a while in the afternoon and started back up. It wasn’t too bad. I probably could have used some sort of rain/windbreaker jacket, but I was OK.

At the end of the first day of play, Mike found me and we headed down to the campsite. We couldn’t find the Peoria team, so we took a shower and then found the Peoria peeps back at camp after that. They already ate, so Mike and I went to get a chicken, breakfast bacon, Canadian bacon, pineapple pizza with a coupon that was in the tournament booklet thingy.

Mike had never heard of cheese curds, and although we were in Winconsin, I failed to procure some for him to try. I actually had some at Saturday night’s party, but they disappeared pretty quick. And what are “hot reds,” by the way?

Camped out in Ben’s tent. There was a “per tent” fee, so it was better to share. Several people were playing poker until the wee hours in said tent. I got in on the no-money side game for a while and played a variety of games most of which were too confusing. Crazy Pineapple was fun. It continued raining until about 10 p.m., which damped the party a bit, but the tent held up pretty well. After it stopped raining, I ventured down to the party for a little while. Ran into some of the Rawhide guys. Threw the light-up disc around a bit. Had a beer and some snacks.

Probably went to sleep around 1 a.m. then I kept waking up too early Sunday morning, but I finally got up around 7:30 a.m. and packed up my gear, brushed teeth, etc. Mike and I grabbed something at McDonald’s and got to the fields at 8:30 a.m. again.

After two games on Sunday, we watched the remainder of the championship game I mentioned earlier. Then Mike and I hit the road right away. It might have been around 4 p.m. I dropped off Mike at his house near Peoria and stopped at Emo’s in Peoria Heights (that’s what the clown picture to the right is from) for a quick dinner — tamale hit the spot — on the way to Lincoln. Then Julie and I and the dogs came back home Monday.

Condition report: I pulled my achilles tendon a tiny bit on Saturday. I got a sunburn on Sunday that was looking pretty bad as of Sunday night but looking better Monday. Poison ivy is doing much better.